fiction

Now, you guys have probably understood that I have become a true Game of Thrones fan. And as a fan, I wanted to have all the fictional historical facts I could find. Therefore, as a birthday gift, I got this amazing and quite extensive book which tells the story of Westeros and Essos.

At the beggining, I could not put it down. The facts about how the Seven Kingdoms started were too amazing to read later, but after a while you get confused with all of the various Targaryen kings and start losing track of who did what. That is why I advise you to read it casually and then reach for it (at least for the first, historical, part of the book) once you encounter the names in the actual books.

After that part, you get into the actual Seven Kingdoms and their respective history and description, one by one. My favourite is Dorne, as it reflects the social and political values I would like to find in the world of today. Equality between sons and daughters, true born children and bastards, wives or paramours, that is why Dorne is so ahead of its sister kingdoms. A sentimental favourite I would find in the North, where true values seem to never have shifted through the centuries. As much as I love the Lannisters, I did not fall in love with the Westerlands.

Now, the third and last part of this book is dedicated to Essos, and since it is the lesser known territory, it was destined to be my favourite.
I am fascinated with all of the tiny islands that we still do not know enough about and with the three guardian cities (Kayakayanaya, Samyriana, and Bayasabhad) that divide the Vaes Dothrak from the Bones.

Above all, I thirst to know more about Asshai by the Shadow, which only has 2 pages in this book. It is so mysterious and unexplored that I was really dissapointed it did not have more space here. Maybe we will find out later, if George RR Martin feels like delighting us.

All in all, this felt like reading a very entertaining history book, extremely realistic (besides the dragons) and believable.
Score: 9/10

I finally gave in to the Game of Thrones craze and decided to ask as a gift the first book of the series, A Game of Thrones, and the special companion book, The World of Ice & Fire. I read the first one quite quickly and I am halfway through the companion book, but since it is full of “historical” events, I get bored easily and I prefer to only read a bit at a time.

Let me start this review by saying that if you have watched the first season of the HBO series, you already know what happens in the first book. It is 99% the same thing.

In case you do not know anything about this series, it follows the life and adventures of various characters, from various points of view, living in Westeros, a fictional land. I would say, if we were to collocate it chronologically, that it would be set in fictional medieval times.

The whole plot is based on games of power and the fight between various houses, especially Lannister and Stark, with a side of Targaryen. Telling you about the characters would ruin everything for first time readers, so I cannot reveal too much. I can only say that my favourite house is House Lannister and that my favourite character is Tyrion Lannister, a very intelligent, overall good, and witty man.

There are no bad things that I can say about this book, to be completely honest. Okay, it is very long, but it is extremely worth it. The length is proportional to how much information is contained and how many dialogues George R.R. Martin had the fantasy to conjure.

I have already gotten the next two books of the series and I promise I will review them as soon as possible.